What is the goal or purpose of your website?

This is the first and most important step to think about before contacting a designer. You will need to identify what you want your website to achieve – do you want to sell products? Advertise your services? Or just be a point for potential customers to gather information?

It would also benefit to know who your target audience will be. Once you have your goal(s) you can start to plan your website.

Do you need a content management system (CMS)?

Dependent on your websites purpose, you will need a rough idea of how often you will need to update your website.

If your website doesn’t need to be updated regularly, then it would be more cost-effective if the is site updated by the company that built it – this would also save you time.

If you plan to change your website frequently (adding new products, updating your news feed etc…) then it would be in your interest to have your website with a content management system. A CMS will allow you to easily add and edit information on your site without having to have any technical knowledge.

How to choose a domain name?

One of the most important steps to take when creating your online presence is choosing the correct domain name. Your domain name is your online identity and will represent your website and business.

Finding a good domain today has become a lot more difficult, with over 168 million domains registered worldwide and increasing each day. But don’t panic, there are still many domains out there that can benefit your company; you will just have to be more creative.

Some of the most important factors when choosing a domain name are:

Keep it short and simple.

Make sure it is easy to spell.

Make sure it’s easy to remember.

I would recommend trying to keep your domain under 20 characters with no more than 3 words.

If possible, you should consider using a keyword in your name, e.g. if your website is about computers, then having “computers” in the domain name would be beneficial. Not only would it let potential visitors know what your website is about, it would also have a positive effect when it comes to search engine optimisation.

Now we know what to look out for in a domain name, it’s time to start brainstorming ideas.

Create a list of possible domains just using your business name (e.g. abcpc.co.uk, pcabc.co.uk).

Create a list of possible domains from the services you offer (e.g. computerrepairs.co.uk, pcrepairs.co.uk, fixmypc.co.uk).

Now try and mix the above together (e.g. abcpcrepairs.co.uk).

Now we should have a reasonably long list of potential domain names which we need to see if they are available. There are many websites that let you check a domain’s status, such as; http://www.whois.net, www.123-reg.co.uk.

If you’re still struggling to find a domain that suits your business and is available then try adding in your location; such as abcpcashford.co.uk.

Do you have a corporate identity?

If your company already has a brand, then this should be incorporated into your website. I would suggest giving your designer some off your literature and explaining the colours you want the kind of layout you like and any other comments you feel will help the designer.

By now you should have a strong understanding of what your websites purpose is and what kind of questions to ask your design company.

There are a couple of reasons, but the main one being for search engine optimisation (SEO). Not only will it speed loading times up, but there’s a thing called localised search query (e.g. pages from the UK) which will only display websites from your country. You can set your location within Google Webmaster tools, but I don't find this as beneficial.

Another main reason is support. From my experience I have found it a lot easier to contact our web hosting support team if they are based in England (no time difference etc…).

There is so much to consider when you start looking at starting your own website. I remember that overwhelming feeling – but it feels so good once you go through with it. And now, looking back, I'm really glad I took that plunge, it was definitely worth it.

Great insight.. Pound for Pound more and more I’m seeing that wordpress content management system is the way to go. You really cannot beat the flexibility and the easy updates. There IS so much to consider when you start looking at starting your own website, But a good WordPress Setup will place you right where you need to be.